On his first outing since helping Argentina win the World Cup in Qatar, Lionel Messi scored in Paris Saint-2-0 Germain’s victory over Angers in Ligue 1 on Wednesday.
Following the lengthy break in the season brought on by the World Cup, Messi was benched for PSG’s first three games. However, after returning to Parisian training a week ago, he was back in the starting lineup for this match against Ligue 1’s bottom team.
The victory saw PSG go six points clear at the top of the French standings, three and a half weeks after he led Argentina to their World Cup final victory over France in Qatar on penalties.
Neymar made his debut as well after missing his team’s previous two games owing to a ban and to receive medical attention for an ankle injury he sustained while representing Brazil at the World Cup.
In the meantime, Kylian Mbappe was benched for a second straight game after receiving time off for a vacation in New York following his own World Cup campaign, in which he scored a hat-trick in the final but lost.
It’s anticipated that Mbappe and Messi will play together this weekend against Rennes on Sunday.
Hugo Ekitike, a youthful striker who started in the home attack at the des Princes since the France star was out, scored the game’s first goal in the fifth minute off a cross from Nordi Mukiele, who also participated in the move.
With 17 minutes remaining, Messi stroked in his 13th club goal of the season to double the lead despite PSG not playing at their best.
Once more involved before Messi applied the polish were Ekitike and Mukiele. The goal was first ruled out for offside, but after a VAR review, it was upheld.
“Messi has recovered well. He is relaxed and in great shape physically, and with Leo the team looks different,” said coach Christophe Galtier.
Galtier, while speaking with a media correspondent, Canal Plus, said “We are coming back off the World Cup so it is difficult for the players to find their reference points again.”
“We are all just getting used to playing together again and you could see at times that we lacked some of the connections between the players that we had more often before the World Cup.”
